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This chapter focuses exclusively on medieval Jewish civilization, from the fall of the Roman Empire to about 1492. It includes alphabetically organized entries, written by scholars from around the world, include biographies, countries, events, social history, and religious concepts. The Talmud is second only to the Bible in Jewish culture, and in some respects even more venerated than the Bible, since the "written Torah" is dependent upon the "oral Torah" for correct interpretation and understanding. With the deterioration of knowledge of Hebrew in the medieval period, outside of Spain, the ability to read and understand books of the Bible other than the Torah also deteriorated. Several scholars have talked about "schools" of translation in medieval Toledo. The first such school is said to be that of Ramon, the archbishop of Toledo. Hebrew translations from Latin are, of course, extremely rare, since few medieval Jews knew Latin.